In response to telecom industry demands for automated bulk migration of numbers and local loop unbundling (LLU), Eircom has said the systems development to deliver such a product would take 18 months and would cost €13m. It also said there is currently no case for a migration process proposed in the Commission for Communications Regulation’s (ComReg) market requirement document (MRD).
Eircom’s much-anticipated statement came following a deadline on Monday to respond to ComReg’s MRD for new forms of LLU access on behalf of access seekers BT Ireland, Magnet and Smart Telecom.
Eircom’s decision to issue the MRD to ComReg and the various LLU access seekers stems from its defeat of ComReg in a High Court action in August. The High Court held ComReg could not use an enforcement order to compel Eircom to implement the decision in January around LLU that Eircom was in the process of appealing to an appeal panel. In a form of settlement following the case, Eircom told ComReg that it will issue a response to ComReg’s MRD on 24 October (yesterday).
Licensed operators were concerned primarily with three core issues: number portability; the migration of customers from wholesale line rental and bitstream broadband to LLU; and the bulk migration of bitstream users to LLU.
In a statement Eircom said it has requested ComReg to convene an industry forum to define and agree the appropriate mechanisms for LLU/geographic number portability.
It states: “Eircom’s analysis shows that the systems development to deliver a product specifically as requested would take 18 months following industry agreement and would cost €13m. The underlying IT developments were proposed by Eircom as part of the LLU product in 2001, but were rejected at that time as unnecessary by the regulator and industry.”
It continued: “Eircom believes there is currently no case for a migration process as proposed in the MRD.
“Further, Eircom has proposed that ComReg should conduct a full market analysis, consultation and regulatory impact assessment before considering any further actions,” the company said.
By John Kennedy
